Silent (21 page)

“Alejandro?”

The hair on the back of my neck stood on end, and I turned slowly to face the oncoming footsteps.

“Alex? What the hell are you doing out here?”

Then I ran. I ran straight for her, keeping the tears from my eyes by laughing like a lunatic instead. “Mimi!” I buried my head in her shoulder.

Mimi was still for a few seconds before she brought her hand up to stroke my hair. “Alex, what the hell?”

“I came to find you.”

“But…why?”

My breath started to catch in my throat. If I wasn’t careful, tears would soon follow. “They took me away from Mom.”

“Who did?”

“The cops and social services.”

“Shit. For real?”

I stepped back to avoid the temptation to cry in her arms. She was even thinner than I remembered, her hair in greasy curls and her eyebrows penciled in with dark makeup. She wore a spaghetti-string tank top that hung off her bony shoulders, and a skirt I could barely make out below it.

“So what’re you doing here in the middle of the night?” she pressed.

“I ran away.”

“Jesus, Alex.” She shook her head. “Why?”

“It’s a long story.” The day with all its insanity was finally catching up to me, and my eyelids were the first to signal defeat. They drooped down halfway and refused to reopen fully. “Can’t we go to your place to talk?”

Her gaze drifted left, then right. “I’m working, Alex. I can’t go.”

“But I’m tired.”

She tousled my hair. “Same old whiny Alex.”

I was too weak to protest.

Mimi dug into her bra and produced a key. I tried not to think about it resting against her breast while she worked as she handed it over.

“6724 Makee Avenue, number two. It’s the unit on the right. Go get some sleep and we can talk in the morning.”

I smiled. A home. A bed. I had
family
again.

“And don’t scare Star when you go in.”

“Star?” I crinkled my nose.

She sighed. “I know. Angel didn’t like Estrella. Said it sounded too ethnic or whatever.”

I shook my head, closing my hand around the key and squeezing it tightly enough to leave an imprint. “Okay, then. See you in the morning.”

I’d already turned away when I heard her respond softly, “See you in the morning,
hermanito
.”

~*~

6724 Makee Avenue was worlds away from the mansions of Bel Air. But it was a hundred times more familiar, and I kept grinning like a fool as I approached the door, floating on the cloud of everything-is-working-out happiness.

Reality sank in after I took a step inside and turned on the lights.

The place was a dump. Even worse than my house had ever been. There was trash on the floor, and no one had taken the garbage out in a while because it stunk, with fruit flies dancing above it. The cabinets were old and broken, and the sink was piled with dishes.

I tripped over a stuffed animal in the hallway. My ankle connected with a stained couch, and I hopped around clumsily as I tried to muffle the cries of pain.

But I wasn’t quiet enough. The hall light flicked on, and a pint-sized girl in a long-sleeve pink shirt and Barbie underwear appeared in front of me. “Who are you?” she asked.

Crouching down to her level, I smiled and tried to appear non-threatening. It must’ve been scary to wake up and find a strange guy in her place, especially since she was home alone. “I’m Alex. I’m your
tío
. Your mommy is my sister.”

“Really? I didn’t know you were my tío.”

“I am,” I responded, hoping I sounded authoritative and not creepy. “Your name is Star, and I haven’t seen you since you were like two years old.”

“I don’t remember stuff from when I was a baby.” She rolled her eyes at me. “No one does. Don’t you know that?”

She was Mimi’s kid, all right.

“Yeah, I know.” I laughed. “But you can get to know me now. Your mom’s… working…so she said I could stay here to sleep for a little while.”

“Do you have any snacks?”

I shook my head. “It’s the middle of the night. You’re not supposed to have snacks in the middle of the night.”

She sighed. “Okay. Let’s go to bed.”

Without hesitation, she grabbed my hand and began pulling me down the hall. I tried not to think about why a five-year-old would be this undisturbed by a stranger breaking into her home that she actually invited him to her bedroom.

As it turned out, there was no bed in the closet-sized room, just a mattress on the floor, covered with a mess of blankets.

“You can sleep with me,” she announced. “Tuck us in?”

She threw her body onto the mattress while I hung back. I didn’t really want to sleep with her, but the couch outside looked disgusting, covered with ash and cigarette-burned fabric, and I was sure the other room was the one Mimi shared with Angel.

Whoever that fucker was.

“Okay. But you go right to sleep, all right? I’m really tired.”

She nodded solemnly.

There was only one beat-up pillow, so I let her settle on it first before I kicked off my shoes and took a tiny corner for myself. Then I pulled the blankets over her, happy that though old, they at least seemed clean.

She yawned as she burrowed in against me, her miniature mouth stretching into a perfect circle. “I always wanted a tío.”

“That’s good, kid.” I patted her head awkwardly, and silky soft curls shifted under my fingertips.

Her drooping lids popped open a few times, like she was checking to make sure I was still there. But eventually she gave in, drifting off to sleep with her lips parted slightly and a bit of drool making its way onto the pillow.

Tiny fingernails—painted pink—rested on my arm. I gently moved them to the side so I could scoot back in an attempt to make myself comfortable on the thin cushion.

Reality was a bitch. The excitement of being home was steadily seeping away. Seeing Mimi again meant more to me than I’d probably admit, but I couldn’t deny the fact I’d traded my bedroom in a mansion for a mattress on the floor of a dingy apartment. I couldn’t hide from the truth of what my sister did for a living. And I couldn’t forget that my life had dead-ended. Without a high school degree, I’d be destined for a career in manual labor—or dealing.

Star squirmed, making a cute little noise, and I glanced over at her.

She was a really pretty kid, with Mimi’s straight nose and a fair complexion. Still so innocent, she looked perfectly happy sleeping on the dirty floor. What kind of life would she have, I wondered?

No father, a mother who…did what she did, and an uncle who was a high school dropout. Did she even stand a chance?

I slid my finger into her little hand, and she squeezed down.

“Don’t be like us,” I whispered in her ear.

Chapter 15: Rescue

“Tío!” Tiny hands shook me awake. “Tío, I’m itchy!”

I blinked wearily, fighting off sleep as I attempted to focus on the room.

“What?”

“I’m itchy,” Star repeated. She was standing above me, still clad in the Barbie underwear, her leg directly in front of my face. “See? I got bumps.”

My eyes adjusted. “Shit,” I mumbled.

Her thigh was covered with tiny raised spots—some old and scratched into scabs, others fresh. I quickly looked over my own body and found five bumps along my left arm.

“Fucking bedbugs.”

Star didn’t jump on me for my cussing. I had a feeling she heard that kind of language a lot.

“Bugs in my bed?” she asked, tiny nose curling up. “Ew!”

“Yeah. Ew,” I agreed, untangling myself from the sheets. “You got any cream to put on the itchy bumps?”

She shook her head. “Mommy washed the sheets and she said that would make me stop being itchy.”

I rolled my eyes. “We’ll have to tell her the bugs are in the mattress.”

She really should’ve known that, but I supposed she had a lot on her mind.

I brought Star with me to the bathroom and did a search of the medicine cabinet. There was actually a decent amount of first-aid stuff, but no anti-itch cream. Eventually I wet a wad of toilet paper and dabbed it along her legs.

“Now, don’t touch the bumps. Just blow on them.”

“Blow on them?”

“Yeah, like this.” I made my lips into an
O
and gently released a breath against her skin.

“Oh!” she nodded. “That feels cold.” Then she eagerly pulled off her shirt. “I have some bumps here, too.”

I blushed. She was only five years old, and there was certainly nothing womanly going on yet, but I still felt strange about her being mostly naked with me in the little bathroom.

In a few seconds I got over it, though. I wet her down some more, blowing on spots here and there. I could see all of her shoulder blades and even parts of her vertebrae as I worked on her back, and I hoped to God it was just because she was a picky eater.

“I’m hungry, Tío,” she announced.

“Yeah.” I helped her back into her shirt. “Let’s go get something to eat.”

The kitchen was just as gross in the daylight as it had been at night. It really didn’t seem like Mimi. She’d always kept her room tidy, always cleaned the table after we ate. I wondered how she could have changed this much in five years. Maybe it was the Angel guy who caused the mess…or maybe she was just so tired after working nights that she didn’t have the energy to keep a clean home.

“Why don’t we fix things up a little before we eat?” I asked Star. “That’ll make your mommy happy, right?”

She considered for a moment, tapping her fingers on her lips. “Okay. Let’s help Mommy.”

I tied off the trash and threw it outside, then sat Star on the counter next to the sink. “I’ll wash and you dry.” I handed her some paper towels.

She nodded, arms outstretched for her first plate. “This is fun!”

I couldn’t remember if I’d ever thought doing the dishes was fun, but I wasn’t going to argue.

There were some roaches nibbling on leftover bits of food, but they were the small kind and I washed them down the garbage disposal, hoping that would chop them to pieces. I scrubbed all the dishes thoroughly and let Star place them back on the cabinet shelves.

“All done!” she announced as the last mug was put away. “Now can we eat?”

“Sure.” I dried my hands on my pants. “What do you want?”

“Cereal!” She slid down from her perch and grabbed a spoon that had been lying on the other side of the counter. “I want cereal!”

The spoon was too large for her little mouth. And it was burnt. And right behind its former resting place, there was a butane lighter.

“Wait, Star, don’t use that spoon. Let’s use one we just washed.”

“Oh, yeah.” She giggled. “This is Angel’s spoon.”

My heart sank.

I took a box of frosted flakes from a cabinet and poured it into some clean bowls, but when I opened the fridge, I found it nearly empty. Only a few slices of cheese, some bread, and a tomato graced the shelves.

“Sorry, kid. There’s no milk.”

Star stuck out her bottom lip in a pout. “But I want cereal.”

I scratched my head. “Well, you can eat it dry, I guess.”

“Can we go to the store and buy milk?”

“I don’t have any money.”

She hopped around excitedly. “Ooh, I know where Mommy keeps the money!”

Before I could stop her, she scampered down the hallway and disappeared into the other bedroom. A few seconds later, she returned with a sock stuffed full of cash.

“See? Now we have money to buy it.”

Some invisible hand reached into my chest, squeezing down on my lungs and making it hard to draw in a breath.

“Uh, yeah. Okay. But let me have that.” I could barely bring myself to pick out the ten-dollar bill, and I gripped it with just the tips of my fingers, like I might catch a disease by touching it. “You’d better go get dressed.”

“Yay!” Star jumped up and down again as she headed toward her room. “I love you, Tío!”

I was going to have to tell Mimi that girl was way too free with her affection.

Star reappeared wearing the same pink shirt, a purple tutu, and white shoes with heels that were too big on her. “I’m ready! And see, I can put my clothes all by myself.”

“Can you walk in those?” I pointed to her feet.

“Mommy said I could wear
tacones
.” She faced me stubbornly. “They look pretty.”

“Sure, they
look
pretty, but what if you were being chased by a…tiger? Could you run in them?”

With one hand on her hip, Star gave me a withering gaze that was just like Mimi’s. “There are no tigers here, silly. They live at the zoo.”

We both erupted in giggles.

It felt really good to laugh. I needed to do a little more of that, and a little less thinking about all the negative shit around me.

There was a knock at the front of the house, and Star climbed onto a chair so she could look out the peephole.

“Mommy!” She flung open the door and launched herself into Mimi’s arms. “Mommy, I have a tío!”

“Yes, you do.” Mimi scooped Star up and propped her on her hip. “You met him before, but you don’t remember.”

“That’s ’cause I was a baby, Mommy. No one remembers stuff from when they was a baby.”

“And you still a baby!” Mimi bopped her gently on the nose. She seemed really happy holding her daughter, but there were dark circles under her eyes, and wrinkles and creases on her face I hadn’t ever seen before.

“Me and Tío are going to the store to buy milk,” Star said.

“Is that so.” Mimi looked over at me.

I pointed to Star. “It was her idea.”

Rolling her eyes, Mimi set her daughter down on a chair at the kitchen table. “Have a Pop-Tart, baby.” She grabbed a packet out of a cabinet with a broken door. “Your tío and me have to talk about some stuff right now.”

The moment of truth. My hands grew slick with cold sweat as I sat beside Mimi on her wrecked couch.

“So? What’s the long story? Only make it short, ’cause I’m tired.”

There wasn’t time to fuck around, but I still found myself grasping for words. Mimi kept looking at me expectantly, her lips unevenly smeared with the remains of some shimmering red gloss.